State told to adopt endosulfan victims

Activist Daya Bai has urged the State to adopt the distressed families of endosulfan victims to help them lead a dignified life.

“It is distressing to see the innocent victims and their families, driven to lead a life of trauma owing to undiagnosed diseases and acute financial crisis, being forced to take to streets to highlight their woes,” Daya Bai, who has been fighting for the causes of the marginalised in Madhya Pradesh, said.

“It is high time the State launched solid initiatives to see that the distressed families are adopted in a decent fashion,” Daya Bai said at a programme — ‘Ammamarkku Parayanundu’ — hosted by the Endosulfan Peeditha Janakeeya Munnani (EPJM) here on Tuesday.

The victims’ mothers, who struggle to wipe the tears of their wards, were often driven to the streets to highlight their grievances. Agencies like the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights should realise that the State should be blamed for such a grim scenario rather than criticising the mothers fighting to mitigate their woes thrust upon by authorities, she said.

The women who converged near the municipal bus station here wanted the State to include all deserving persons who had taken part in special medical camps held in April last, in the list of endosulfan victims. The meeting expressed deep resentment over not implementing the Supreme Court verdict issued on January 10 last year that the remaining financial assistance decided by the National Human Rights Commission be disbursed within three months. A sizeable number of victims were yet to get any assistance, EPJM sources said. The EPJM would be forced to intensify its ongoing agitation if the State failed to take immediate steps to implement the apex court ruling, EPJM secretary Ambalathara Kunhikrishnan warned.